is almost stressful!  Ah, I'm going to be okay now.  Abby should recover by next week. 

where we are making it, but it feels like we aren't.  I don't do messy house well and Abby doesn't do lack of routines well.  The combo. is quite crazy and I'm not sure it's worth it at the moment, but that's why it's called Remodel Madness...

Amazingly, the tool mess and waiting living room/kitchen/foyer should be DONE by Wednesday.  The other picture at the bottom is to show that we are free from subfloor in our main floor bathroom.  Tile reigns. 

In happier news, the weather has changed and we've been outdoors most of the day all week.  Dan worked on grading areas of the lawn that were ruined last summer this morning and spent the rest of the day mulching.  Everyone breathes easier when outdoors and away from home.  Very soon, we will be able to relax and enjoy each other in this space. 

The fridge and dishwasher will be delivered after the flooring is installed.

Wood floors waiting to be used

The house is coming along well.  The mud room is complete and the kitchen is done except for electrical and installation of our new fridge and dishwasher.  Those items have to wait until after our flooring is installed. 

Here are the new mud room lockers. 

We can cook.  We can clean.  Let the fun begin!

This will be our backsplash.

Looking into the kitchen at the new peninsula and window.

To the left of the peninsula is the new, wide pantry with a space for the oven/micro. next to it.

Produce bins are inside the peninsula area.

The bottom half of the hutch.

The hood designed by AK.  Can you tell? 

Lack-of-Kitchen

 It's easy for me to say, now, that I regret not having this done when we purchased this house.  The kitchen remodel was budgeted into our purchase price as the previous owners didn't wipe their cabinets, cooked bacon every day (so greasy), and had the dryer venting into the house.  I can assure you that the combination creates an interesting gunky effect on cabinetry.  All attemps at cleaning created more gunk.  At the time of purchase, our girls were newly seven down to six months - and I had chronic mastitis.  We let it go and kept saying we'd do it in four more years...  One thing that's making this easier is the discovery that our old oven was within moments of fire - long story having to do with faulty wiring.  The cabinet that housed it was black from the sparks from the melted wires.  So, this is not fun, but it will be over *soon.*

A zillion more to go? 

Main floor bath

Lower level

The first coats look good.  Yeah for less decisions for me!

Here's the laundry area.  I lost my *room,* but it wasn't much of a room.  It's not orange-ish in person. 

The new bedroom upstairs...

Our master future bath...  Um, it really is a nice red.  Think traditional.  Think cranberries.  Think Williamsburg. 

Odd things to post on-line, but far away family appreciate seeing things take shape. 

Colors don't transfer well digitally and the roughed in lighting makes things look odd, but I thought I'd make my blog smile too. 

Here's the kitchen in a more heathery blue than what was there previously.  The sun room beyond the kitchen is one shade lighter. 

The new cabinets will match the trim seen in this close up.

The school room is a creamy pale teal.

The main floor bath didn't transfer well at all.  It's less orange in real life - more coffee with a dash of cream.  The rest of the main floor is half cream and half coffee. 

The hallway and upstairs will be done tomorrow and then we'll start seeing some trim. 

Here's our new tub area and...

the main floor off the kitchen. 

I'm not looking downstairs until he says I can use it! 

We'll be warm tomorrow as drywall will be hung in the ceiling upstairs first thing in the morning.  I like how the arch frames the entrance to the large space.  Our contractor put one in our bathroom over the new tub too. 

It's amazing how having our yard settled brings a sense of relief and peace to our home.  It will likely be dirt all winter as we plan to hydroseed in the spring, but the change from a couple weeks ago is striking.  Never underestimate the power of a mess to unsettle this Mama!

Thankfully, I married someone of a similar vein.  Dan spent the weekend doing our contractor's work.  He set these rocks, removed from our hillside, to complete the path from the side of the yard to the patio.

We spent our restful Sunday placing hostas...

and wondering at how our yard feels and appears larger than before construction.  Hmmm...

We also took a trek through the woods to look at our neighbor's home.  How very convenient that they did a similar addition on the back of their very-similar-to-ours- home three years ago.  S. was very kind to let me see what we were building before the process began.  Due to our guest room and school room window, we went with a patio instead of a deck.  I also believe our 18 X 20 has the long side lengthwise where hers is the other direction.  In any case, wasn't it nice of her to use our dimensions?

And here's the back of ours from the woods.

We had several days on our own inside the house as our contractor was working outside and the heating guy is finally finished.  Holly, in particular, enjoys watching him work.  She watched him pull out a tree that we are selling and was surprised when it landed on top of him!

I caught a glimpse of him holding the branches away from his head and thought I better be kind and  wait to snap the photo! 

here's a picture of my kitchen "inspiration" anyhow.  Having pictures around helps me talk to our contractor and designer.   The colors will be quite different, but the shape of the window, the backsplash, and the cabinet style will be similar. 

Not very exciting, but we're getting there.  Mechanicals should wrap up this week.

 We elected to add a furnace to the upper level so that it could be zoned seperately.  The heating and cooling guy has been here daily for over two weeks. 

One last chunk of wall was finally able to come down this morning.  This bit had a gas line, pipes for a sink, a laundry drain, and many electrical wires making it a project for many hands.  Our contractor tore it down today.  Here's the mess...

When I came back from lunch (Panerra bagels again!).

Yeah!  He can (and does) use a vacuum!!!!!!!  The ceiling in the basement bath is being torn out at this moment.  Amazingly, the girls don't mind ANY of the noise.  I was sure we'd have to practice violin and cello at bedtime, but I forget that they all learned to play with babies in the house! 

Here are a few pictures of the chaos, though it's really not bad on the weekends. 

This picture is looking into the old laundry room.  The tyvek rustles and pops with every breeze.  There's more in the kitchen and in our bathroom. 

This shows the girls' bathroom.  Between that opening, tyvek paper in our bath, no bathroom on the main floor, and the plumbers using the basement bath to access pipes, we're really stuck in the mornings when we're at home.  Thankfully, Dan's office is close and we've been using that bathroom a lot!

The old and new main floor bath.  Plumbing was complex here, but they are nearly done.

One view of outside with siding nearly to the top.  The girls enjoy seeing the workers on ladders outside their windows. 

Hopefully, these are self explanatory.  We're swamped!  (My lungs are holding up okay). 

These were taken a few days ago.  The first two are of the upstairs.  You can see some of the framing for the new laundry area and a bath for our master bath.  The third one is of the main floor before it was cleaned up for the day. 

The next two were taken this afternoon.  Windows are in and siding is starting to go on the side you can't see.  The new patio is in the foreground.  We can't tell what color it is yet. 

Windows are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.  The siding will be done after that. 

Yesterday

The above picture makes it look a bit out of proportion.  Today's are better.  It's a large room, but it isn't bigger than our house. 

Today

What a huge relief it is to have the back filling done.  Roofing was supposed to start, but we were expecting rain.  I'm sure it will rain now.  ;)

The framing was finished this afternoon, including the second story.  I'm not braving the mosquitos to get a picture of that, but here's one from the inside.  Holly thinks we should leave it like it is and use it as a "tennis area."  At this point, why not, huh?

My violin lessons always start with a lesson on making our "basement."  Suzuki friends will recognize this as a reference to using our foot chart and making sure our feet grow deep "roots" into our "foundation."  Now I have several pictures of this wonderful concept so necessary for playing the violin with ease.  A Foundation is important in all of life, yes?     

We're ready for backfill, floor joists, and some framing beginning tomorrow. 

It's hard to get a good shot of the depth of that hole!  I'm glad the doors leading to the lack of deck have fencing over them! 

Day 2

The footings are in and the girls and I are heading to my parents.  I'll be glad when they put up walls next week!